


Not Any Younger

by wisia



Category: DCU
Genre: Aging, Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-05
Updated: 2018-06-05
Packaged: 2019-05-18 11:38:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14852033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wisia/pseuds/wisia
Summary: Tim isn't any younger. Ra's can take that.





	Not Any Younger

**Author's Note:**

> I was trying to work on my STH fic that is way long over due, and I ended up writing Ra’sTim. Go figure. A pairing I haven’t written in a few years at least I think.
> 
> This was kind of inspired by Tim’s storyline in B:TAS/Batman Beyond. I was just thinking about an older Tim in his sixties/seventies. And whelp, this is what i ended up with.

 

“You’ve missed this, haven’t you, detective?” That voice was smooth, low and tinged with that Arabic accent that Tim couldn’t forget. Ra’s’ voice was haunting, followed Tim in his sleep and slipped into every waking second free from other thoughts and duties.

Tim stilled. A warm weight settled onto his shoulders, merely resting and not more than that.

“Do I?” Tim asked. He didn’t turn his head, refrained from looking back at a man who should have been long dead a thousand times over.

At that, the weight on his shoulders turned firmer, a presence that couldn’t be ignored.

“You’ve aged finely,” Ra’s said, no, murmured. His breath tickled Tim’s ear, both familiar and not. It had been a long time since.

“I wish I could say the same of you.” Tim reached up with a shaking hand—the curse of damaged nerves—and pulled Ra’s’ hand off. He pivoted with a fluidity Tim didn’t know he still possessed, cane locked in to keep Ra’s at a distance.

Ra’s’ mouth curved into a devastating smile. Youth rested on his face, furrowed lines that should have existed brushed away…maybe still from the Lazarus Pits.

“Am I not to your liking?”

“No.”

Ra’s laughed, deep and chilling in the way it still rubbed at Tim’s heart. Made a pitter patter skip in his rhythm that wasn’t from his pacemaker.

“Perhaps,” Ra’s mused. “You wish to be younger?”

There was a gleam in his eye, and Tim remembered too the feeling of being young. Of facing Ra’s and all the villains that ever graced the grounds of Gotham.

“I am younger.” Tim was pushing sixty something granted, but it didn’t make him older than Ra’s regardless of surface appearances.

“That you are,” Ra’s agreed. His eyes swept down Tim’s form. Took in the cane and that still cursed tremors in Tim’s hands.

Tim gritted his teeth. “Don’t mock me.”

He knocked Ra’s’ legs with his cane. Even with the tremors and his failing eyesight, Tim could still make a mark.

“Uncalled for, Timothy.” Ra’s grabbed his cane, and even though Tim expected the pull on his cane he could not quite stop himself from being yanked into Ra’s’ arms.

“You should know that I never mock, not you of all people.”

Tim’s breath caught as he looked up into Ra’s’ eyes. With a push of his hands, Tim tore himself away from Ra’s. The cane trembled as he pointed it at Ra’s, unable to speak.

“It’s true,” Ra’s said softly. There was something in his voice that made Tim want to believe.

He sighed. “6PM. In Paris. I expect the best.”

“Pardon?” Ra’s stared at him, and it was nice that Tim could still do that.

“I’m not getting any younger. If I’m going to die…” Tim shrugged. “You get one dinner.”

 


End file.
